Researchers are warning that risky and deadly abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy could surge in states that have abolished all abortion limits.
Most pro-life analysts say data predicts the spike, as lawmakers in states such as Colorado and Massachusetts have acted on the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling, which returned jurisdiction over abortion to the states and allowed them to legalize killing babies in abortions up to birth.
“Abortion until birth is a product of ideological extremism,” said Gavin Oxley, media relations manager for Americans United for Life. “Removing gestational limits falsely signals to women a cultural assent to its morality and safety, and states should be liable for the harm abortion deregulation poses to their citizens.”
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Massachusetts became the latest state to abolish all limits.
As LifeNews reported, Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, signed a bill on August 10, leaving decisions about abortion up to “the professional judgment of the physician” – which basically just means the abortionist selling the abortion at potentially a cost of thousands of dollars.
The law eliminates prior requirements that abortions at or after 24 weeks be limited to cases involving the mother’s life or physical or mental health, or certain serious fetal diagnoses. It takes effect November 8.
The state’s Department of Public Health data counted 99 abortions at 24 weeks or later in 2024, up from 84 in 2023. All occurred under previous state laws with those more narrow limits
Pro-lifers have challenged the narrative that most abortions occur at this stage because of life-threatening issues. Herb Geraghty, chief communications officer for Secular Pro-Life, noted that a 2020 study found most later-term abortions occurred because of financial issues and the mother’s delayed awareness of pregnancy. That essentially makes the abortions elective.
Geraghty also pointed to Arizona Department of Health Services data showing that 80% of the state’s abortions after 21 weeks from 2012 through 2017 were not performed for maternal or fetal health reasons.
“Removing a legal barrier on elective abortion late in pregnancy will necessarily increase the number of abortions being done on healthy women with healthy babies old enough to survive outside the womb,” Geraghty said.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists has highlighted a study of federal data that found the rate of maternal death for abortions after 21 weeks “was almost tenfold the rate of death of all abortions.”
Pro-lifers say the surgical process of extracting sharp fetal parts after this stage poses higher risks of puncturing a woman’s uterus and nearby organs as the baby gets older. Surgeries comprise the entirety of abortions after the first trimester because pills are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use beyond the 10th week of pregnancy.
“Several of the states allowing abortion up to birth consistently do not report any abortion numbers year after year,” said Dr. Karysse Hutson, national medical director at Save the Storks.
She said this refusal to report could hide an upcoming jump in “women seeking or being forced into having an abortion after week 24” as access becomes easier.
States that have ended all gestational limits include Alaska, Vermont, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Maryland, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, California and Massachusetts, along with the District of Columbia.
Pro-life advocates note this makes Massachusetts the 11th state plus the District of Columbia with no abortion limits of any kind.
